Samizdata quote of the day

It is not without significance that the socialist Labour Day is celebrated in the Spring, at the time of planting and promise. It is full of hope of what might be achieved. By contrast, the capitalist Labor Day celebrated in America takes place on the first Monday of September, when the harvest is in and its actual achievements can be hailed.

– Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute contrasts Britain’s Labour Day (today) with Labour Day in the USA.

Australia is the correct laboratory for a controlled experiment, as some States observe Labo[u]r day in the spring and some in the fall, which are, of course, reversed relative to the Northern Hemisphere.

The Socialist Festival of Idleness, IIRC, is what the late, great Auberon Waugh called the Early May Bank holiday. It is, under this name, relatively new in the UK, Callaghan brought it in in 1978, reportedly as a sop to the Commies in the Unions. Around this time the Soviets had their huge May Day Parades with missiles, so naturally the Commies wanted time off to salivate over Brezhnev’s arsenal. It was slightly fudged as not being specifically May Day, and it sort of replaced the Whit Holiday.

I distinctly recall my newsagent bemoaning the Communist influence on the Early May Bank Holiday when it came in. There was talk a few years ago of scrapping it and replacing it with Trafalgar Day. I can’t see Mrs May wanting that, it might offend Mr Corbyn or even M Macron.

Could it be that the Labour one is full of hope because people are now going to be able to eat after starving and scavenging in bins for months while the other is celebrating having stuff in to eat over winter and they can now sit back and relax.

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